Damaged Souls (Broken Man) - By Christopher Scott Page 0,9
I think it would feel pretty good, Delaney felt herself react as her hand moved to her diaphragm and she felt his presence inside her body as she took a deep breath.
No, he doesn’t feel the same way about me, Delaney decided as she opened her eyes and remembered how he reacted to her invitation. He wouldn’t have turned me down so easily if he was really interested. No, Greg just sees me as a friend, and he has way too much on his mind to ever see me as anything more.
What is wrong with me, Delaney felt her emotions tied up in knots. But it’s not just my mind, she realized and again felt the tension she was unsure how to handle as her fingers found the inside of her thigh and she felt her muscles tense. Why am I thinking about him like that?
I need to get over these feelings for him once and for all, Delaney’s mind spoke the truth her body seemed unwilling to accept as she rolled over on her side and tried to go to sleep.
Chapter Three
“I can’t believe you are going to make me do this,” Jack tried to make Amanda feel guilty but couldn’t hide a smile. “You’re the psychologist, why don’t you talk to Greg.”
“I would, Jack,” Amanda tried to bribe him with a cup of coffee and a kiss as she sat down. “But, Delaney’s right, Greg isn’t going to talk to me.”
“And why do the two of you think he is going to talk to me.”
“Oh honey,” she smiled as she teased him. “It’s just that you are so kind and sensitive, and so in touch with your feelings. Of course he will talk to you. Doesn’t he have to, you are his boss.”
“Very funny,” Jack smiled as he took a sip of coffee and realized he had doubled the amount of complication in his life when Delaney moved in with them. “Okay, I’ll do it. But, I can’t promise when or even if it will do anything. You’ve put me in a very delicate situation you know.”
“Oh, I know it is quite a burden on your busy schedule,” Amanda teased him again. “But I promise to make it up to you.”
That sounds pretty good, Jack thought about going in late this morning and taking her back to bed before realizing Logan would be up in a few minutes. “What did you have in mind.”
“Well, that all depends on how good a job you do. But, I may be open to suggestion.”
“We better stop before I get too many ideas in my head,” Jack laughed as he stood up and realized it was already too late. “I better get going. What do you have planned for the day.”
“Logan and I are going to visit that pre-k over at Meadow Brook to see if we like it. We are going to have to make a decision on that pretty soon.”
“We will, I hope you guys like it,” he responded and thought about Logan terrorizing a school. “You want to come wake him up with me.”
“Sure, Jack,” Amanda replied as she stood up “And thanks for talking to Greg for me.”
* * *
It was Friday afternoon when Amanda finished her final appointment of the week. As she heard the voices of her expanded family playing outside, Amanda took a second to sit back in her chair and count her blessings.
It was easy to realize how fortunate she was, especially with respect to the problems of her patients. The alcoholism and drug abuse were just symptoms of the deeper diseases of abandonment, neglect, abuse, and all the other life tragedies with which she had become so familiar. No, she didn’t practice full time, just for a couple hours a day out of her home and once a week volunteering at the women’s shelter, but she heard enough in that short time to know how important it was she continue to practice.
South Florida would always provide an endless list of clients to fill her appointment book. Amanda had more phone calls than she could handle despite not actively seeking patients or advertising her services. She even felt a little guilty about only practicing part-time, but it was important to her to be a stay at home Mom until Logan started school.
That had been the plan they made, the deal she and Jack had agreed to five years earlier when the doctor confirmed her pregnancy. They had each gotten what they wanted, Amanda keeping